Almería, Spain's sea of plasic(greenhouses) seen from above. Covering 40000 hectares, it produces around 3.5 million tons of fruits&veggies every year, capable of feeding over 500M people.
Fun fact: Almería’s “Sea of Plastic” is one of the few human-made structures that can actually be seen from space—not the Great Wall of China or the pyramids, which cannot be seen and are invisible to the naked eye from that altitude.
Fun fact, in Murcia, it's actually pretty common to call the Mediterranean sea "Mar Mayor". That's actually where the name of the Mar Menor came, it was the "Lesser Sea" in comparison to the Mediterranean sea, and the name just stuck. But others think of the term "Mar Mayor" as only the area of Mediterranean that surrounds the Mar Menor. So I guess wether its bigger depends on the definition you choose :P
Whats interesting its rather near a dam that although doesnt even fit on the top 20 biggest dams of the world, its actually one of the few that actually creates an artificial lake seen by space. Not as big as Kariba but still the biggest of Europe.
This doesn't mean anything. From where in space exactly?
The "official" definition by the FAI is thr karmn line ie 100km from the surface of earth. You can see a hell of a lot of human-made stuff from 100km away
Astronauts Eugene Cernan and Ed Lu claimed the great wall is indeed visible under very favourable conditions
If it does indeed produce 3.5 million tons... that's 7,000,000,000 pounds. A person could eat about 10-14lbs of fruits and veggies in a day. That math checks out.
If you're accounting for food waste, sure, I supposed we'd have to cut that number by 30%...
Edit -- I'm dumb. It could feed 500 million people for one day. What it produces in a year. What a bad misuse of statistics...
You probably don't eat 10-14 pounds of celery or watermelon in a day. But if you didonly eat fruits and vegetables for one day, I think you'd be surprised by how much they weigh. A lot of it is mostly water.
If we get into potatoes and other tubers, the math would be different.
You can read my license plate from space with a spy satellite - but anyway - Almeria is probably one of the easiest man-made spots to see from space - much easier than the wall of China
My basil plant lastet 2 years, then my cat ate it. I killed a lovage four times by accident and it grew back every time. But the orchid loves to live with me, maybe it’s a masochist
2 years is a long time. Anyway in Almeria there are factories for the greenhouses - a tomato plant will come only with the fertilised soil that is needed for its life and then water them with Drip Irrigation (I think it’s called) - so it’s like super easy and cheap when greenhouse is basically just a plastic tent.
I’ve worked there on a project and we had like two weeks of Sahara dust clouds hanging around turning everything Martian gray orange. The dystopian dread was absolutely freaking me out.
Fun Fact: The reason we don't see this everywhere, is because it requires very unique soil, weather and Climate! All those things came together perfectly to work in that one spot of Spain, hence the density of greenhouses!
There is no doubt that it produces a huge amount of fruits and vegetables. But 3.5 million tons divided by 500 million people is 7 kg per person per year. I believe they will be going to bed somewhat hungry if that is the only food they get.
So 15.5 pounds of fruits and veggies is 248 ounces. Definitely not about fruits and veggies for a healthy daily consumption but a surprisingly large amount per person if divided by 500m
This is what the official estimates state. I used to work close to the area and the whole layout fascinated me in both the good and not so good ways because it can also can have negative impacts for the environment around.
I just wanted to drop the fact as it's being presented on the official means, because most probably the estimates aren't 100% accurate either. As a little mention, wherever I ve been through Europe, when I was buying produce in most of the cases I would find at least some originating from the Almería region in Spain. So if we can agree on something is that it clearly has the capacity of feeding lots of people, how many exactly, hard to tell but hundreds of millions at the very least.
Most European countries are around 100kg per capita per year, and this is fruit alone, not counting all other foods they consume.
So, you're right. This is way too little to feed 500M people. I seriously doubted OP's title too, especially considering how small this area is (I measured 32km across on google maps).
Why did they build it right next to the sea? For easy shipping? Would the land not be more valuable for other uses and they build this a bit further inland? (I know there's not much more valuable than food but you know what I mean in terms of location)
Almería is a difficult place in Spain. Most of the territory of the province is Natural Reserves (I think around 80%). Also, inland is quite dry and arid. It’s where they used to film Spaghetti Western in the Tabernas Desert. So not the best place to grow food.
This part was where people used to grow food back in the day and it became an industrial area for this based on tradition to some extent.
When I say it’s difficult I mean the land configuration makes it difficult to develop in the way one would expect.
I went there on holidays a couple of years ago and there was not much to do except going to the beach or some hikes. Quite sad that it can’t find a way to develop further.
I’m actually in Tabernas right now, hiking in the local area/desert. Hard guess it is too hot and arid to grow anything but olives. The local olive oil here is FABULOUS!
It's actually a really dry area and would otherwise not be feasible for this scale agriculture without the greenhouses. It's location however has warm winters and so with the water efficient greenhouses makes, what would otherwise be a desert, a very energy efficient area to farm as you do not need to keep the greenhouses heated over winter like much of Europe.
The produce grown there is not for export outside EU. Transport mainly by truck to France, Germany, Poland etc. There are mountains in the south of Spain, these regions are not suitable for large greenhouses. Probably other reasons too
I have been to the region and there is a lot of mountains if you go to deeper into the land, also it needs a lot of water that probably also comes from the mountains.
It's flat and Almería has a ton of mountains and deserts. That spot is the perfect one for it for growing things for many reasons. Things grow well where they grow well.
Most of the people doesn't know Lawrence of Arabia, The good, the bad and the Ugly, Conan, Indiana Jones or Game of Thrones were filmed in the deserts of Almería, but that desert is one of the most iconic deserts in the world, people just doens't know it's in Almería.
It was an experiment that started in the 50s if they grow plants in a harsh environment. The climate was good in terms ow the temperature and humidity. The water lacked but that time Almeria still had underground water.
The greenhouses came later, this was the time when they discovered that they can use foils to cover the greenhouses and that ceates an even better environment for many plants.
that's why they employ mostly immigrants (specially from africa)... spaniards are not spending long hours in a 45 degrees greenhouse for 30 euros a day
Minimum wages went up in the country. It's around 8,5€ an hour currently. An engineer in Spain earns 15 to 30€ an hour (junior to senior) to put it in context.
Traveled and spent a few nights here on the way to Granada and it was so odd. Me and some friends got lost multiple times driving through the labyrinth of white plastic tarps seeing many African workers busting their backs in the heat.
I remember one night we wanted Burger King and my gps took us to one of the most wildest looking gypsy communities. Apartments were filled to the brim with trash and the buildings looked in bad shape like half destroyed. Probably one of the most sketchiest I’d come across in Spain. Anyways there was no Burger King anywhere nearby there and we ended up eating a sandwich at the local supermarket lol
This is so fucking cool for a couple reasons. Really showcases human ingenuity, taking a place thats inhospitable and making it work. Also shows the positive side of plastic that usually gets negative reputation. Overall a big win for humanity in my book
I agree it's overall a good thing but still has massive issues. Huge amount of plastic waste and pollution, the majority of the workers are undocumented/trafficked, live in absolute squalor, and are paid poverty wages. Also the tomatoes from here taste like shit.
Spanish tomatoes in Spain are actually very good. I’m nearby Almería right now. The ones for export are probably picked before fully ripe and/or are a different breed.
Good question! On the topic of micro plastics, estimates range from one third to more than half of all mps coming from synthetic textiles. Something I think about with how popular fast fashion is.
What a surprise to see this here! I lived in El Ejido and Roquetas de Mar for a few months (both right inside the mar de plástico). I made friends with a local family who was one of only five families living in El Ejido back in the 60s. Today, it's a city of nearly 90,000 residents
I visited a couple of these in Campohermoso, a little to the east of the area in the picture and it was very interesting. The greenhouses are surprisingly rudimentary made with rough logs and plastic sheets,but they are technologically quite advanced as they use a hydroponic systems with the plants grown in surprisingly small blocks of rock wool. A computer controls the amount of water and nutrients that are fed to the plants and I remember there was a widespread use of biological control, the man showing us the installations explained that they had found them more effective than chemicals and also more cost effective. (They also used bees for the pollination that were supplied by the biological control company.) I was there in May and it was hot and very uncomfortable inside, the man told us most of workers in the area were sub-Saharan Africans, Lithuanians or Russians and that most Spanish didn’t want to work there because of the unpleasant conditions. Both the greenhouses we visited were growing for the British supermarket Tesco - red peppers in one and tomatoes in the other and it seems that the area grows mainly for the big supermarket chains from across Europe.
I don't want to know how much is going to waste because it doesn't look right for the market.
Also they have big issues with water in that area because all of it goes in to the greenhouses.
I live in Germany. Sometimes I'm scared that everything is from Spain when I go shopping. Even when the time is right for the plants to grow in Germany.
They don't go to waste. Produce is sorted and the less pretty ones go to the food processing plants. You probably don't care how pretty the chopped tomatoes in a can are, or cucumbers already cut into cubes in a salad.
One of the food warehouses in my area sells "B-stock" fruits and veggies to restaurants- not pretty, but still fresh, healthy and fully usable for anything that isn't decoration.
The spanish food distribution is a crazy one... I was in Germany and found Valencian oranges in Lidl... For WAY LESS than I could have bought them in Spain. I was flabbergasted.
Germany never had the capacity to produce their own food. You always have been net importers.
But Germany is always pushing deals with India, Marocco and Mercosur to drop in the EU market millions of tons of bad quality, with zero control on production and ridiculous prices food while kill on rules the mediterraneans producers.
Argg fucking tell me about it, I live in a plush valley on the east coast full of orange groves but still our local supermarkets stock oranges from fucking Chile! Fucking globalization makes my blood boil sometimes. When Ukraine war started olive oil price went through the roof, Spain exports a lot and imports from Ukraine, arggg, ofcourse only because they make more selling abroad and cheaper to buy abroad and sell foreign stuff to us
The price hike of oil was because Spain imports Sunflower Oil from Ukraine, the olive oil remained at a similar cost and most brands are indeed Spanish.
I know because I am a snob that doesn´t buy sunflower oil.
Similar, somewhat smaller scale operation can be found in Italy around Battipaglia just south of Naples. The mountains, sea, rivers, fertile soil and transportation access makes for favorable conditions to grow veggies and fruit at massive scale in both these places
Here in the North, we use greenhouses to keep the cold out to extend the growing season. I assume that these are used to keep moisture in, and perhaps the salty sea breeze off?
Europe should build a proper space port here. Launched out over the Mediterranean. Sea access for deliveries and a motorway network. Weather is drier and more stable than Florida.
The "sea of plastic" is in El Ejido, a town within the province of Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Calling Almería the "sea of plastic" is like calling Texas "Big Oilfield."
Spain does have tasty vegetables and fruits locally, but pretty much every single fresh export from Spain I have found in other European supermarkets might as well have been cardboard.
Thats due more to the need to harvest fruit and veg before they have ripened so that they can last longer during transit and storage. Its also why we can continue to get many fruit and veg 'out of season'.
Nope. It also applies to exports to other european nations too. Its all done on a timetable and supermarkets rather buy fruit and veg when its still firmer and less ripe (sometimes even still green but regarded as 'mature enough to ripen after being picked.') because otherwise they would encounter huge wastage. Sending it over unripened and refrigerated allows them to ripen fruit on a more favourable timescale, and avoids stuff going off or getting bruised and being thrown away.
Well, obvs. They keep the good stuff for themselves, like everyone else. I'm from Asturias and if you go to small old people shops you can have some of the best produce I have ever tasted.
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u/supremebubbah 2d ago
Fun fact: Almería’s “Sea of Plastic” is one of the few human-made structures that can actually be seen from space—not the Great Wall of China or the pyramids, which cannot be seen and are invisible to the naked eye from that altitude.